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Brunel Psychology Society's Psych News newsletter for March 2011
Citation preview
We sincerely hope you find
Psych News interesting and
possibly even entertaining,
and we are very keen to
hear your feedback. Just
drop us an email to the ad-
dress at the top of this page
to let us know what you
think! (Please be nice!)
Welcome to Psych News
Issue #1! As slapdash as
this newsletter / magazine
may appear, it has actually
been coming since the start
of first term. With each issue
we hope to refine the look
and format, so keep read-
ing!
Welcome to Our First Issue!
Brunel Psychology Professor Conquers Outback
This photo (below) was
taken from a helicopter
above the Bungle Bungle
Range Kununurra, Western
Australia in September
2009. The Bungle Bungle
range is remote, weird and
stunning. They are beehive-
like sandstone domes with
striping in alternating orange
and grey bands.
There is accommoda-
tion in the middle of this (a
so-called wilderness camp).
Most people take escorted
tou rs e .g . f l y i n t o
Kununuura, are picked up
and driven to the camp as
the drive is difficult. But,
Mark, my husband, adores
driving so we drove our-
selves in a four-wheel drive
vehicle (compulsory) - the
just over 50 km very tough,
rough road to the camp took
around 2 ½ hours!
Both Mark and I are
keen landscape photogra-
phers, so next morning we
took the helicopter trip situ-
ated a few kilometres from
the camp. The flights are
early morning as the tem-
peratures get to above 40
degrees Celsius during the
day. I love the Aussie “can
do” attitude – it isn’t easy
for me to get in a helicopter,
so they found a milk crate
for me to stand on and
pushed me in! To complete
the experience, the doors
had been taken off the heli-
copter, so we were held in
only by seatbelts. Fantastic,
leaning out of the helicopter
taking photos. That flight
was one of the best experi-
ences in my life (although
riding on a sled pulled by
huskies last summer in
Alaska came a close second
– but that’s another story/
picture).
THE IMPORTANCE OF
PLACEMENT 2
GET INVOLVED! 2
EMETO-WHAT? 3
MEET YOUR STUDENT
REPS 4
STUDENT REP FEED-
BACK 5
DISSERTATION ACA-DEMIC SUPPORT TUTOR JOINS BRUNEL PSY-
CHOLOGY DEPARTMENT
5
NEW LEVEL 3 OPTIONS
FOR 2011! 6
NEW FINAL YEAR OP-
TION 6
STUDY OF THE MONTH:
RAT PARADISE 6
MAKE THE MOST OF
YOUR REPS 4
TOP 10 TIPS ON HOW TO
SURVIVE (AND ENJOY!)
YOUR DISSERTATION
7
VOLUNTEER OPPORTU-
NITY OF THE MONTH—
HILLINGDON CARERS
7
ANNOUNCING BRUNEL’S
FIRST BRAIN AWARE-
NESS WEEK
8
OTHER AWARENESS
EVENTS 8
NATIONAL STUDENT
SURVEY! 10
BRUNEL PSYCHOLOGY
SOCIETY 11
BOOK OF THE MONTH
OBEDIENCE TO AUTHOR-
ITY: AN EXPERIMENTAL
VIEW
11
BRITISH PSYCHOLOGY
SOCIETY PAGE 12
WEBSITE OF THE
MONTH: RADIOLAB 13
KEEPING BUSY—
FERNAND GOBET 13
SUBMISSIONS WANTED! 13
Inside this issue:
B r u n e l P s y c h o l o g y S o c i e t y
Psych News Issue #1 March 2011 [email protected]
http://on.fb.me/fHhxZ5
Lynn Myers
Brunel’s very own intrepid explorer riding a helicopter toward the Bungle Bungle range, Western Australia
“the doors had
been taken off
the helicopter,
so we were held
in only by
seatbelts.”
Photo taken by Lynn Myers, published in Glove Box Guide to the East Kimberley 2011 edition
Many Psychology students want to work as professional psychologists or in related social care, education or health careers. These jobs can involve dealing with vul-nerable children, adults or elderly people and so typi-cally require significant re-lated experience. Competi-tion for professional training as a psychologist makes it even more important to build a good portfolio of experi-ence. If you’re not on the placement option you’ll need to think about gaining this kind of experience outside of your course.
Experience with different client groups is useful and especially if you aren’t sure what you want to do when you graduate. Even if you have a specific goal, varied
experience may be neces-sary. For example, clinical psychologists work with cli-ents of all ages on a range of issues including anxiety and depression, phobias, eating disorders, addiction, disabilities, schizophrenia and other mental health problems. Broad experi-ence will not only help your applications but also ensure that you have the empathy and ability to cope with chal-lenging situations.
Educational psychology has the more specific client range of children and young people up to school leaving age. Here teaching experi-ence and other work with children and young people including those with emo-tional, behavioural or learn-ing difficulties is most di-rectly relevant but aim for some balance with other activities.
Try looking at your end goal and working out what is most relevant for you, start-ing broad and narrowing down as you start to focus in on specific careers.
Paid work is attractive for obvious reasons but you might need a step by step approach to getting exactly what you want and the first step will probably be volun-tary work. Voluntary work can be a good way of getting direct clinical or client ex-perience which helps you overcome the ‘no experi-ence no job’ barrier. Volun-teers work in a variety of settings including schools, day centres, residential hos-tels, help lines, hospitals etc. Don’t worry that voluntary work won’t ‘count’ with future employers – it’s very much the quality of the experience that matters.
socially / sport or work-
related, it all helps to boost
your CV and you can make
a whole bunch of new
friends at the same time.
A recent example of some-
thing I was involved in is
‘Brunel’s Got Talent’ (which I
hope you all went along to!).
I learnt a whole range of
skills relating to team build-
ing, organisation & planning,
and worked alongside some
terrific performers and mem-
bers of staff.
Hello Psychology students!
It’s your Level 2 Student
Rep here, Brett. I’d like to
take this space to say how
important it is to engage with
everything that’s happening
here at Brunel.
Many people you speak to
will say that University was
the best time of their lives,
so I’m urging all of you to
really make the most of it!
Whether it’s academically /
To become involved in the
next Brunel’s Got Talent,
whether to audition or be-
come part of the team be-
hind it all, please visit
www.brunelstudents.com/
talent.
I hope you all have a terrific
time whilst you’re at Brunel,
and become involved in the
various student activities
and movements that are
happening; not only for your
own enjoyment but for your
future success as well.
The Importance of Placement
Get Involved!
Page 2
Psych News
Brett Halsey, L2 Psychol-ogy Course Rep
Kate Croucher
“Many people
you speak to
will say that
University was
the best time of
their lives”
By Kate Croucher,
Deputy Director, Careers, PCC
[email protected] http://on.fb.me/fHhxZ5
By Brett Halsey
L2 Psychology
of fearing something so
“stupid”, because of a lack of
understanding that they have
received in the past “no one
likes vomiting, what makes
you any different?”
Emetophobia limits my social
life. I fear going out to
places far away because I
worry that if I do spontane-
ously vomit people will see
me, and I won’t be able to
get home quick enough. I
fear going out amongst the
typical student scene be-
cause of the high risk (in my
mind) of seeing someone get
sick from the alcohol or food.
Even watching TV I got in
the habit of holding the re-
mote ready to turn the TV off
should anyone look ill. Doc-
tor surgeries, hospitals,
pregnant people, theme
parks, children, pubs, clubs
etc all come with them a
heightened degree of anxi-
ety. At my worst I would
hardly eat and if I did, it had
to be white foods (rice,
pasta, bread, etc.). After
overcoming the housebound
element, I was only able to
travel in a car for 30 minutes
at a time and public transport
was a no go.
In lectures I would always sit
by the door and know where
the nearest toilet was at all
times in case I had to run to
it. Living in halls I would put
towels under the cracks of
my doors if I knew of a stom-
ach bug or flu going round.
When I feel I have been ex-
posed to anything that way
inclined I will wash myself in
antiseptic hand gel. The
sight of buckets makes me
nervous. People coughing
makes me panic inside. On
emetophobia forums online
Emeto-what? Emetophobia.
Oh right. What’s that? It’s a
fear of being sick. Oh yeah I
have that, being sick is horri-
ble isn’t it? I mean no one
likes it do they? No.
I have had chronic emeto-
phobia for 12 years. On
paper it is a fear of being
sick but in reality it is so
much more than that. A pho-
bia of being sick differs from
a simple dislike of it because
of the excessive and irra-
tional anxiety that comes
with it. Often emetophobics
will say “I’d rather die than
be sick” and they are not
kidding. Years ago I held a
knife to my wrist because I
felt like I was going to vomit.
Emetophobia can come in
three forms: fear of yourself
being sick only, fear of your-
self and others being sick,
and fear of others being sick
only. Emetophobia is like
being scared of your own
body. Vomiting is a bodily
function that is normal, peo-
ple do it every day for a vari-
ety of reasons and it is not
something that in reality you
can avoid. Which is why it
can, and did for me, escalate
into something that made me
housebound. Every minute
of every day I am obses-
sively checking my state of
health; Do I feel sick? Do I
feel hot? Do I have a head-
ache? Are the glands under
my throat feeling heavy?
Already in a constant state of
anxiety that shoots up dra-
matically if I do for whatever
reason feel nauseous. Indi-
viduals suffering with emeto-
phobia find it difficult to dis-
close because of the shame
people will type v* or v*ing
as some people can panic
from the sight of that single
harmless word. My only
saving grace, my only es-
cape from the constant bar-
rage of thoughts in my head:
“am I going to be sick?” my
constant supply of pre-
scribed anti-emetics, drugs
that are given to physically ill
people to stop them being
sick.
As always, there are a num-
ber of reasons why someone
can develop emetophobia. It
is thought most have had a
very disturbing experience to
do with vomiting in their
childhood. I didn’t but I can
remember the exact moment
I all of a sudden was over-
whelmed with a panic attack
rooted around being fright-
ened I was going to be sick.
I was 11 years old, sat in a
Spanish lesson with my form
tutor and the thought popped
up, I reacted to it with im-
mense fear and left the
room, and unfortunately that
thought has made a home in
my mind. For me, it has
been hypothesised, that it is
an extreme manifestation of
a fear of losing control.
I have been at university
now for 5 years and in that
time I have been developing
ways to control my phobia so
that it is no longer as debili-
tating as it used to be. My
time at university has been
made a lot easier with the
support of the Disability &
Dyslexia Service and the
adjustments put in place to
help me participate in univer-
sity the way everyone else
does, and for that I am eter-
nally grateful.
Emeto-what?
Page 3
Psych News
More FAQ’s on
emetophobia
can be found
here:
http://
www.emetophob
ia-clinic.com/
emetophobia_f-
a-q.html
By Jenny Leslie,
L3 Psychology
[email protected] http://on.fb.me/fHhxZ5
Emetophobia in
the DSM-IV
300.29 -
Specific Phobia:
Other type
Make The Most of Your Reps
We have also, more re-cently, unearthed that there is in fact no plus or minus 10% word limit on submitted assignments, and have helped to inform students of this.
Student Reps attend regular Staff-Student Liason Com-mittee meetings (SSLCs) where they meet with the module and course leaders to help solve any issues that students might be facing.
It is therefore vital that we hear from you so that we are able to feed something back to the ‘top dogs’!
Without your input, it’s very unlikely that anything will be changed!
Student Reps also feedback to Course Reps (i.e. the reps responsible for the whole of Social Sciences) who sit on School Board meetings to
suggest School-wide im-provements for all students here at Brunel!
You should be able to iden-tify who your Student Reps are via their hoodies - if you haven’t seen one yet then look out as there are quite a few around!
We are also trained to help students who are in need of advice or support, although you can always speak to your personal tutor regard-ing any issues you might be facing as well.
Student Reps are democrati-cally elected each year and anyone can be one!
For further information about how you can be involved, please visit :
www.brunelstudents.com/
reps
Student Reps are here to represent YOU and to make YOUR voice heard!
Ever felt like you weren’t learning properly or getting the most out of your lecture? Well we want to hear from you!
We can help with issues such as lecture quality, late submission penalties, U-Link materials, timetabling, com-puter resources, assess-ment and feedback.
For instance, level 2 Psy-chology students managed to get their timetable changed for this year, so that they didn’t have back-to back lectures from 9am - 5pm on a Tuesday!
Page 4
Psych News
“Student Reps
are here to
represent YOU
and to make
YOUR voice
heard”
[email protected] http://on.fb.me/fHhxZ5
Meet Your Student Reps
By Brett Halsey
By Brett Halsey
Level 1
Olaide Asuni [email protected]
Toby Berriman [email protected]
Level 2
Brett Halsey [email protected]
Nichole Davies [email protected]
Maria Paes [email protected]
Kiranjit Gheent [email protected]
Sanna Ahsan [email protected]
Level 3
Level 5
Katharina Lefringhausen [email protected]
Level 6
Gaia Di Castro [email protected]
“Student Reps
are
democratically
elected each
year and anyone
can be one! “
Psych News [email protected] http://on.fb.me/fHhxZ5
day. There is no evidence of
the deadline being moved
multiple times. It can only be
speculated at this point that
the confusion may have ar-
rived from a miscommunica-
tion, so staff have been re-
minded of the importance of
careful and thorough com-
munication of any changes
to deadlines. Students
should also be vigilant with
checking uLink for an-
nouncements.
L e v e l 2
Some students raised issues
with work placement tutors,
and one particular student
did not find out the name of
his tutor for three months,
and even then there were
confusions due to the place-
ment tutor being new to the
university. This has high-
lighted an (admittedly rare)
issue with the procedures,
and the work placement con-
venor has been asked to
assign tutors earlier, particu-
larly for those students start-
ing placements in June. Both
In the last Student Staff Li-
ason meeting in November a
number of issues were
raised. Here is a quick sum-
mary of what has happened
with those issues:
G e n e r a l
Staff have confirmed that
there is no such thing as a
+10% allowance for word
limits on assignments, and
future handbooks will specify
this explicitly.
Despite the rumours that
have circulated, Lab Reports
do need to be fully refer-
enced.
Students with a registered
DDS support profile have
highlighted that they are not
receiving all lecture slides in
advance of the lectures.
Staff have been reminded of
their duty to provide these
slides to those identified by
DDS as requiring them.
There has been some confu-
sion, particularly in the first
year, caused by different
lecturers requiring different
presentation styles. The re-
quests of the lecturers
should never contradict the
advice printed in the hand-
book, and any extra require-
ments they have must be
carefully and thoroughly
communicated.
L e v e l 3
There were issues around
an assignment deadline that
had apparently been moved
back and forth a couple of
times. The investigation has
shown that the deadline was
approved to be moved on
the 4th Nov from the original
date of the 15th to the 19th.
An announcement was
placed on uLink on the same
the work placement conve-
nor and Toby Robertson
would like to apologise to the
student concerned, and
thank them for bringing this
issue to attention.
L e v e l 1
A request was made for ex-
ample essay plans to be
available for students in
coming years, as many stu-
dents raised concerns that
they were unclear as to what
was required of them for this
a s s i g n m e n t . I f a n
“appreciable” number of re-
quests for this are made on
the evaluation form then the
lecturer will consider this,
however since there is no
such thing as an “ideal” plan
the lecturer emphasizes that
she is available by email or
by signing up for a slot on
her office door to discuss
any issues.
Future issues of Psych News
will have feedback presented
by individual course or
school reps.
Student Rep Feedback
“Future issues
of Psych News
will have
feedback
presented by
individual
course or
school reps.”
By Toby Berriman
Dissertation Academic Support Tutor joins Brunel Psychology Department
Dr. Gavin Sullivan has re-
cently joined Brunel Psy-
chology Department for 3
months to provide academic
support to 3rd level disserta-
tion students.
Gavin has worked previously
as a Senior Lecturer in Psy-
chology in Australia, New
Zealand, and Indonesia and
as a Guest Professor in Ger-
many. He has experience of
supervising quantitative,
qualitative and mixed-
method research and 25
publications (i.e., peer-
review journal articles and
book chapters) on such di-
verse topics as forensic psy-
chology, psychotherapy for
borderline personality disor-
der, theoretical psychology
and research on individual
and collective emotions.
Dissertation students are
welcome to contact him at
to make a time to discuss
possible assistance with the
completion of their work.
Gavin is located in the Gas-
kell Building Rm GB 203
Dr Gavin Sullivan
Dr. Gavin Sullivan
Page 5
to the pleasure-giving sub-
stance more than an inher-
ent property of the drug
itself.
To prove their theory they
constructed a rat paradise, a
two-hundred foot pen with
delicious cedar shavings and
brightly coloured toys. The
pen was heated ideally, and
had separate areas for nest-
ing, birthing, and exploring.
Into this pen they put half
their test subjects, and left
the control group in the stan-
A lot of research has been
carried out to demonstrate
the addictive property of
various substances by ob-
serving the animal self-
administering the drug, even
to the point of death. How-
ever in 1981 Bruce Alexan-
der, Robert Coambs, and
Patricia Hadaway chal-
lenged this, arguing that the
conditions that the animal is
kept in drive it’s “addiction”
dard lab cages.
Each group was given ac-
cess to sugary morphine
water, and plain tap water.
The sugary water would
have been a treat to the
sweet-toothed rats!
You may not be surprised to
hear the rats in the control
condition consumed the
morphine-laced water enthu-
siastically, however the Rat
Paradise group largely
avoided the laced water!
Study of the Month: Rat Paradise
Page 6
Psych News
“in contrast to most
(if not all) the other
final year options,
the new final year
option will incorpo-
rate some practical
lab classes”
Dr. Michael Price
[email protected] http://on.fb.me/fHhxZ5
Level 3 module options are now decided for 2011/12 and there is a wider choice of 10 modules rather than the 8 of the previous year!
So hot off the press, the inside scoop, here are your choices for next year. Re-member: you saw it here first!
Term 1:
PY3006 Inter-group Rela-tions
PY3467 Therapeutic Ap-proaches in Clinical Psychol-ogy and Mental Health
PY3019 Introduction to Cog-nitive Neuroscience
PY3003 Autistic Spectrum Disorder
PY3465 Psychology of Age-ing
Term 2:
PY3032 Evolutionary Psy-chology
PY3468 Psychology of Con-sciousness
PY3102 Drugs, Hormones and the Brain
PY3025 Understanding Health
PY3XXX Practical Investiga-tions of Mind and Brain (tentative title)
New Level 3 Options for 2011!
By Dr Michael Price,
Undergraduate programmes
Director
By Toby Berriman
“a rat paradise, a
two-hundred foot
pen with delicious
cedar shavings and
brightly coloured
toys”
New Final Year Option
I will be starting a new final year option module next academic year, its provi-sional title is “Practical in-vestigations of mind and brain”. As the title suggests, the main aim of the module is to introduce students to the key techniques we have at our disposal to study the relationship between the brain and the mind, or in other words, between the
physical and phenomenal worlds.
It will address how we might establish the relationship between neuronal and per-ceptual events – one of the key goals of modern psy-chology and neuroscience.
The module will review two key approaches: psycho-physics and neuroimaging, and in contrast to most (if not all) the other final year options, will incorporate some practical lab classes.
Details are still sketchy at the moment, so watch this space for more develop-ments on this module!
By Adrian Williams,
Centre for Cognition and
Neuroimaging
Effect of early and later colony
housing on oral ingestion of
morphine in rats
Alexander, B.K., Beyerstein,
B.L., Hadaway, P.F., Coambs,
R.B.
Pharmacology Biochemistry and
Behaviour, 1981 vol:15 Issue:4
Page 7
Psych News [email protected] http://on.fb.me/fHhxZ5
such as PsychINFO, Sco-
pus, and Web of Knowl-
edge (i.e., don’t rely only
on Google Scholar!). See
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/
life/study/library/databases
for a list of databases
available at Brunel. If you
need help in carrying out a
search on one of these
databases, visit the Help
desk in the library or con-
tact the subject liaison li-
brarian (see link above).
5.You will need to formulate
research questions for your
study. Don’t be discour-
aged if you need to revise
your research questions
(even more than once),
based on feedback from
your supervisor. This is
part of the process!
6.Once you have chosen a
topic, you should read
about the most suitable
methodology. The choice
of methodology should be
driven by your topic, and
not the other way round!
7.Remember that there will
be lots of information on u-
Link about dissertations,
including FAQs, ethics
information, and past sam-
1.Arrange to see a prospec-
tive supervisor to discuss
your ideas and possible
supervision. Choose a
supervisor early on – all
staff have “quotas” and
cannot take on unlimited
numbers of students. Also,
please arrange to see only
one potential supervisor at
a time and be sure to get
back to staff you have
seen if you have decided
on another supervisor.
2.Choose a topic that you
are really interested in. If
you are having trouble
finding a topic, think about
the lectures you have
found interesting or a pa-
per/book that you enjoyed
reading.
3.Start reading on a topic
early on. Recent review
articles are particularly
useful, as they often high-
light the “gaps” in an area
and provide ideas for fu-
ture research.
4.Make sure that you do
some “proper” literature
searches, using databases
ple dissertations. You will
have access to this u-Link
site sometime in May,
2011. Before emailing your
supervisor to ask a specific
question, do check first to
see if the information is
already on u-Link.
8.Most students find that
working out a “timeline”
with their supervisor is
extremely helpful e.g., set-
ting dates for completion of
ethics application, data
collection, and reading
drafts. Ideally aim to agree
on a project with your su-
pervisor and obtain ethical
approval before the sum-
mer holidays.
9.Prepare for any meetings
with your supervisor. For
example, bring along a list
of specific questions you
have, or hard copies of
questionnaires that you
would like them to see.
10.Attend the dissertation
teaching sessions held in
Term 1 (on writing an intro-
duction etc.). There will
also be dissertation clinics
on statistics and qualitative
analysis held in both
Terms 1 and 2.
Top 10 tips on how to survive (and enjoy!) your dissertation – For Level 2 students
Cynthia Graham, Dissertations Convenor
“Choose a topic
that you are
really interested
in. If you are
having trouble
finding a topic,
think about the
lectures you
have found
interesting or a
paper/book that
you enjoyed
reading.”
By Cynthia Graham,
Dissertations Convenor
Located in Uxbridge, oppo-
site Tesco’s, Hillingdon Car-
ers supports people who
look after relatives and
friends with special needs,
disabilities, or long-term ill-
ness in the borough of
Hillingdon.
Types of volunteer work
available include:
• Office and administration :
computer work (Must have
computer knowledge of
Microsoft office), answer-
ing telephone and general
office duties.
• Carers Cafe : help prepar-
ing, serving refreshments
and helping with activities.
• Young Carers Saturday
Club : helping the staff in
running the club with arts &
crafts, sports and cooking.
If you have a few hours
spare and would like to vol-
unteer, please contact the
office on 01895 811206 or
pop into our Information &
Advice Centre. where you
can pick up a Volunteers
pack.
h t t p : / /
www.hillingdoncarers.org.uk/
Volunteer Opportunity of the Month—Hillingdon Carers
01/03/2011
Self Injury Awareness
Day
http://
www.firstsigns.org.uk/siad/
21/03/2011 - 27/03/2011
Down’s Syndrome
Awareness Week
http://www.downs-
syndrome.org.uk/
21/03/2011 - 27/03/2011
Share the Care Week
http://
www.sharedcarenetwork.org
.uk/index.jsp
Other Awareness Events
Psych News
“This cross-
departmental
concerted effort
will introduce a
variety of topics
of psychology
and
neuroscience in
an accessible
and engaging
manner.”
[email protected] http://on.fb.me/fHhxZ5
Brain Awareness Week, an initiative of the Dana Foun-dation, is an international campaign to increase public awareness about the pro-gress and benefits of brain research. Since 1996, around 2600 schools, uni-versities, and hospitals from 82 countries, including many institutions across the UK, have participated in this week-long celebration of the brain. Through the provision of a variety of engaging ac-tivities and discussions, con-tributors to the campaign disseminate the latest inno-vations in neuroscience to the wider community. The first Brunel contribution to this event is jointly organ-ised by Dr. Alex Nowicky from the School of Health Sciences and Social Care, as well as Dr. Adrian Wil-liams and Dr. Andrew Parton from the School of Social Sciences. This open-invitation public event will provide a series of short talks, posters and demon-strations designed to pro-mote brain health and show-case Brunel’s own contribu-tions to neuroscience re-search.
We are pleased to announce that Professor Brian Butter-worth will present the key-note talk on Thursday 17th
March 2011 at 17:00. Emeri-tus Professor at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL, Prof. Butterworth’s current research interest is dyscalculia – or the science of failing to learn arithmetic. As of 2004, his seminal book ‘The Mathematical Brain’ had been translated into four languages. Furthermore, Prof. Butterworth regularly contributes to advancing the public understanding of sci-ence – appearing regularly on BBC radio and television. Elected a fellow of the Brit-ish Academy in 2002, Prof. Butterworth has held teach-ing posts at Cambridge, MIT and the Max Planck Insti-tute, to name but a few. We are delighted that Brunel’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Chris Jenks, will provide a short welcome statement prior to Prof. Butterworth’s talk.
Further contributions in-clude: a talk concerning dys-lexia from Professor Taeko Wydell; an introduction to the science of magic led by Dr. Gustav Kuhn; a discus-sion on pain perception by Neil O’Connell; a presenta-tion on ‘Friedreich’s Ataxia’ - a neurological disorder - from Dr. Mark Pook; a dem-onstration, from Dr. Daniel Bishop, of how enhanced activity in the mirror neuron system is common amongst expert players of fast sports; a personal story of a suc-
cessful recovery from the limitations left by stroke, from Dr. Tom Balchin; and many more to be confirmed!
This cross-departmental concerted effort will intro-duce a variety of topics of psychology and neurosci-ence in an accessible and engaging manner. Please feel free to attend a selec-tion of talks that particularly interest you; of course, should you wish to find out more about the many facets and functions of your brain, we will be delighted for you to join us for the duration of the event. You might happen upon that key element miss-ing from your essay, that snippet of information that will impress your examiners – you may even discover a topic that will inform your course of research for years to come. We look forward to seeing you there!
This free public event will take place in the Darwin Room in the Hamilton Cen-tre on Tuesday 15th & Thursday 17th March 2011 (from 1pm to 6pm; mid-afternoon refreshments are provided). For a detailed schedule of activities and presentations keep checking www.brunel.ac.uk/brain for the most up-to-date pro-g r am m e , o r e -m a i l [email protected] to be added to the mailing list.
Announcing Brunel’s First Brain Awareness Week
By Sean Williams
BBAW Administrator
“Each year, the 1st of March is designated as SIAD around the
world. It's a time when we can all come together to help raise
awareness about self-injury and
self-harm.” Page 8
www.brunel.ac.uk/brain
at Brunel.
Results will show the per-
centage of students satisfied
so if you are in anyway satis-
fied with your time at Brunel
you need to tick the
‘definitely satisfied’ or ‘often
satisfied’ options as all the
other options (including the
middle one) are not included
in this calculation.
Level 3 students: The Na-
tional Student Survey (NSS)
is a questionnaire completed
by all Level 3 students in the
UK. It is currently open to all
our level 3 students and is
your opportunity to tell us
about your experience here
If you haven't already com-
pleted the form, please click
on
www.thestudentsurvey.com
Many thanks and best
wishes!
National Student Survey!
Page 10
Psych News
The NSS is a national initiative, conducted annually since 2005. The survey asks final year
undergraduates to provide feedback on their courses in a nationally recognised format,
students on flexible courses will be asked to participate as they near the end of their
course but not necessarily in their final year.
[email protected] http://on.fb.me/fHhxZ5
By Bridget Dibb
Touch Point Leader for Psy-
chology
The results from the
main 22 questions
are made available
for prospective stu-
dents and their advi-
sors on Uni-
stats.com to help
them make informed
choices of what and
where to study.
Psych News [email protected] http://on.fb.me/fHhxZ5
capacity and mechanisms
for this exists inside every
s i n g l e o n e o f u s .
This book, published over
ten years after the experi-
ments, is Milgram's chroni-
cling of the experiments, the
results, the analysis and
conclusions he drew, and
some of the critical reactions
it provoked. It is also very
readable, which I have found
is unusual for a book written
by a psychologist. There is
no excessive jargon or aca-
demic writing style, just plain
language and good explana-
t i o n s .
Personally I found the book
fascinating, and while I al-
ready knew about the fa-
mous experiment I was unu-
ware that quite so many
variations had been carried
Starting in 1961 American
psychologist Stanley Mil-
gram started a series of ex-
periments which were to
become some of the most
famous and revealing in his-
tory. After the Nuremberg
Trials a lot of people were
asking how the Nazis could
have carried out the atroci-
ties they did, and a common
defense presented by those
on trial was "I was following
orders". It was hard to be-
lieve, however, that people
could really commit such
heinous acts simply because
they were ordered to. Mil-
grams experiments showed
that not only can the pres-
ence of authority easily influ-
ence people to bypass their
moral judgements and inflict
harm on others, but that the
out and covering such a
wide sample of the popula-
tion. I would say this book
should be required reading
for just about everyone, not
just psychologists, as it
teaches us a lot about our
own obedience to authority
and by learning the lessons
here we can learn to ques-
tion and challenge authority
w h e n a p p r o p r i a t e .
If you find this book interest-
ing you may also like:
The Lucifer Effect: How
Good People Turn Evil -
P h i l i p Z i m b a r d o
a n d
Opening Skinner's Box:
Great Psychological Experi-
ments of the Twentieth Cen-
tury - by Lauren Slater
Book of the Month Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View
“I would say this
book should be
required reading
for just about
everyone, not
just
psychologists”
By Toby Berriman
Page 11
The Brunel Psychology Soci-
ety is approaching it’s first
birthday now, and it has
been quite a year! We didn’t
know quite what we were
letting ourselves in for when
we started, and some com-
mittee members found that
their studies didn’t allow
enough spare time for them
to dedicate to the society.
This meant that through the
first year we have had a high
turnover on the committee.
But those of us that are still
here have learned a lot of
lessons, like don’t schedule
events right before assign-
ment deadlines or tests! Or
how external forums don’t
really work, but Facebook
seems to work well.
“a joint screening of Das Experiment with the Cult Film Society (which I suspect they are still recovering from!)”
We held a number of events
through the year, including a
couple of social events, a
joint screening of Das Ex-
periment with the Cult Film
Society (which I suspect they
are still recovering from!), a
screening of In Treatment,
and some study groups.
As we go forward we are
picking up speed and putting
what we have learned into
practice. Psych News is the
first sign of this, and there
will be more to come includ-
ing more events like:
• BBQ Social
• Study Groups
• More film screenings
• Hopefully a debate with the
debating society
• And lots moreX!
We also have our Annual
General Meeting coming up
soon, at which you will be
able to vote for who takes
what committee positions
next year. And if you want to
get more involved, you could
run for committee positions
yourself! More information
on this and how/where to
vote will be published
through our facebook page
and by email closer to the
time. Until then, keep think-
ing Brunel!
Brunel Psychology Society
Psych News [email protected] http://on.fb.me/fHhxZ5
BPS for students, and offers
all sorts of benefits including:
* Free or discount entry to
certain events
* An annual conference (this
year featuring a Q&A with
Prof. E. Loftus!)
* Monthly magazine The
Psychologist
* Quarterly magazine Psy-
chTalk
Most psychology students
know about the British Psy-
chology Society (BPS), but
do you know about the BPS
Student Member Group
(SMG)? No? Well you’re not
alone, but that’s why I’m
here!
The SMG is a branch of the
* Discounts on BPS books
* Free transfer to graduate
membership
* Reader access to Senate
House Library where the
BPS library is held
So lots of great benefits! For
more info go to the website,
or contact me, your BPS
SMG Representative, at
British Psychology Society Student Member Group
Event: Why do women prefer to cradle babies on the left side?
tions of the bias and the evi-
dence for them. It has been
suggested, for example, that
babies are held where they
can hear the soothing sound
of the mother’s heartbeat,
where they have best access
to the most expressive side
of her face, or that the
mother accommodates to
the baby’s preferred head
position.
At present, the most promis-
ing explanation of the left-
cradling bias relates to the
organisation of the mother’s
brain. Cradling on the left
side may be advantageous
as it enables optimal proc-
essing of infant signals in the
mother’s right hemisphere
which, typically, is special-
ised for emotional informa-
tion. Cradling on the left is
therefore said to allow for
finely tuned awareness of
the infant’s state as indicated
by appearance, sounds and
muscle tension. Some im-
portant evidence of a reduc-
tion in the tendency to cradle
on the left-side in women
and men who are experienc-
ing stress, anxiety and de-
pression will be examined.
Speaker: Dr Brenda Todd
Date/Time: 16 March 2011
6:15pm
Location: BPS London Office,
30 Tabernacle Street, London
EC2A 4UE
It is well-established that the
majority of women prefer to
hold their babies on the left-
side of their bodies but the
reasons why are not so
clear. The bias appears to
be independent of handed-
ness since left- as well as
right-handed women typi-
cally prefer to cradle babies
in the left arm. Brenda will
explore a variety of explana-
Page 12
The BPS SMG has a num-ber of events scheduled, some of which are free for members!
Free entry to BPS
SMG members. Free
entry by ticket only,
available by emailing
londonandhc@googl
email.com Please
type “Left” and add
y o u r B P S
membership number
as ‘XXX’ in the
subject line of your
email. Tickets usually
go quickly so early
booking is advised.
Only one ticket per
member will be
issued.
By Toby Berriman
http://www.bps.org.uk/smg/smg_home.cfm
Event: Psychology For All
Date: 26th March 2011
8:45am—5:30pm
Location: University of West-
minster
Cost: £20.42 per person; con-
cession £15.32
An enjoyable and informa-
tive one day public event
showcasing the variety and
relevance of psychological
research to our health and
well-being.
The talks include:
Get the edge: Understand-
ing the body's little secrets
The Luck Factor
“An enjoyable and informative one day public event showcasing the variety and relevance of psychological research to our health and well-being.”
Deconstructing young peo-
ple’s behaviour: How to
make sense of a child’s
world using personal con-
struct psychology
The psychology of work-life
balance
How brain injury can help us
to understand the mechan-
ics of the mind
Brainwaves – where Mind
and Body meet
Knowing the words, but not
the music: What psycho-
paths can teach us about
empathy
What happens to our brain
and mind as we get older?
On the witness stand - vari-
ables influencing eyewit-
ness’ accuracy and confi-
dence
Prejudice reduction using
our own neurology
Negative Capability: The
benefits of having a capacity
for being in uncertainty
And lots more!! For more
details and information visit
http://bit.ly/huPQXt
Are you a student or staff at
Brunel and have something
you would like to write about?
Then let us know! We are
looking for any submissions
that are related to psychol-
ogy, studying psychology, or
about yourselves as psychol-
ogy students or staff.
Articles can be as short as
you like, or stretch up to
We are off to a good start
with Psych News and hope
to continue that each month
with better and better mate-
rial.
And remember, Psych News
is brought to you by the
Brunel Psychology Soci-
ety!
much longer, although the
recommended length is up to
about 200 words for a short
article or up to 500 words for
a longer article.
So please, send all your
ideas, articles, or whatever to
us at: [email protected]
and we will do what we can to
ensure you get into the next
Psych News!
Next Month
Keeping Busy—Fernand Gobet
As if that wasn’t enough, he has just published Founda-tions of Cognitive Psychol-ogy, together with Philippe Chassy and Merim Bilalić, two former PhD students. While most textbooks on cognitive psychology are written for an advanced-level audience and can be over-whelming and confusing for the students, Foundations of Cognitive Psychology is pitched at the introductory level. Written in a simple style, the book clearly ex-plains how topics such as
perception, attention, mem-ory and problem solving fit together and provides nu-merous illustrations from everyday life.
Finally James Borg, who graduated in 2009, and Prof. Fernand Gobet have just published an article in Man-ual Therapy titled “The inter-mediate effect in clinical case recall is present in musculoskeletal physiother-apy “. The article is based on James Borg’s disserta-tion.
Let it not be thought that our professors are not busy! Brunel’s Prof. Fernand Gobet has been very busy, first he has been invited to give a keynote speech at the 2nd conference of the Inter-national Research Associa-tion for Talent Development and Excellence (IRATDE) in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, in November 2011 where he will talk about “Excellence : Expertise vs. Talent”.
Professor Fernand Gobet, Professor in Cognitive Psychology, Director of the Centre for the Study of Expertise .
“a radio show and podcast weaving stories and sci-ence into sound and mu-sic-rich documentaries.”
We are looking
for submissions
from students
and staff!
Articles,
opinions,
response to
something
you’ve read in
Psych News,
whatever you
feel like
sending!
Radiolab, while not being
specifically a psychology
website, contains some great
information for those inter-
ested in learning more about
psychology. In their own
words: “Radiolab, with Jad
Abumrad and Robert Krul-
wich, is a radio show and
podcast weaving stories and
science into sound and mu-
sic-rich documentaries.”
The podcasts are easy to
listen to, breaking down com-
plex ideas into simple to di-
gest pieces mixed with inter-
views, stories, and dialogue.
What sound like heavy com-
plex topics can be easily en-
joyed in a quiet hour.
I have been a fan of radiolab
for a long time now, and ab-
solutely love the psychology
related shows they do. Level
one students recently learned
about Jill Bolte Taylor, the
neurologist who got to experi-
ence her brain deteriorating
when she had a stroke. I first
learned about this case in a
fascinating Radiolab podcast
Website of the Month: Radiolab
entitled “A World Without
Words” that looked at the
psychology and function of
language in our world.
Other particularly great
shows have included Pla-
cebo, Choice, Laughter, Mu-
sical Language, Memory and
Forgetting, and Sleep.
http://www.radiolab.org/
By Toby Berriman
By Professor Fernand Gobet
Submissions wanted
Psych News [email protected] http://on.fb.me/fHhxZ5
Page 13